Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder - Thesis Example

?Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder Introduction The genre of this book is unclear. Some analysts claim it is a fable, novel, fairy story, theoretical and more. Jostein Gaarder is well known for his other work in the book Sophie’s World. Generally, Gaarder is only interested in the ideology that people should think and notice that they are alive. In addition, the people should appreciate the environment they live in citing that the world is a fascinating place. The book “The Solitaire Mystery” requires thought, as the ideas in it require a good consideration and concentration. As such, several analysts would claim that reading this book is not easy however, for students and researchers it serves as a very good reference. The book is controversial and one could think that it is written for the younger generation only. However, after thorough reading and understanding this book, one finds that there are hidden meanings and concepts that are very useful. For the interested parties in reading this book, one of the requirements is close attention since complications may rise especially when a reader discovers that there are stories within a story. Due to the cleverness of the text, intelligence is required for any interested reader. The solitaire mystery consists of two seemingly separate stories which include Hans Thomas and the sticky bun book. The Hans Thomas story Twelve year old Hans Thomas goes on a search for his mother. Accompanying him is his father from their home town in Norway to Greece. Han is unaware that his life would be changed forever. Hans Thomas will discover a whole new world filled with mystery. The protagonist takes the readers on a journey as he uncovers the truth about existence and living as he makes the journey with his father. However, Hans Thomas ‘s father had some unethical behavior like smoking which he taught his son and there were instances that they both made stops to smoke together as they journeyed. While stile on their journey, a strange bearded man gives Hans Thomas a magnifying glass and tells him that he will need it. After a short while Hans Thomas and his father stop in a roadside cafe where Hans Thomas gets a giant sticky bun to eat on his journey. Hans Thomas gets surprised when he finds a tiny book that has small writings that cannot be read with naked eye. Hans starts reading the small book with the aid of the magnifying glass. The Books writing was too small to be read with the naked eye so he begins to read the tiny book using his new magnificent glass. As Hans Thomas continues to read the little book, he discovers that there is a huge connection between him and the sailor described in the book. For example, there is a scene where the sailor finds himself on an island whereby a deck of cards mysteriously come to life. With the help of the magnifying glass, the sticky bun book becomes more interesting as he continues to read it in secret. Generally, the story focuses on a mysterious tale in a strange island, A man by the name Frode owns a pack of cards as well as a drink and in his strange manner, he thinks he can drink anything. As Hans reads, there is the realization that the book has similar implications in his own life and that in a strange manner, he is also a part of the tale it unfolds. A string of strange events occurs on the journey. The sticky bun book In the book sticky bun, there is a storyline of an old baker who is given an amazing drink by the grandfather. The drink came from an island that the grandfather was shipwrecked on as a young man. In this island there is also an old sailor by the name Frode and 50-three other people. Despite not having names the 50 three other people referred to themselves as the numbers of cards (52 cards plus a joker). The red suits are all the women apart from the kings and jacks, whereas all the black suits are all the men except for the queens and aces. Frode then developed a crush on the ace of hearts because she was enchanting even though she was forever losing herself. The cards equal to the 50 three people were unintelligent, childish and talked in card related riddles like turning a person face up and when the game ends. Frode would tell them about the sailor and how other people came on the island together to be with him. Frode was also shipwrecked on the island many years earlier loosing his entire possessions except a park of playing cards. The lack of any alternative saw Frode playing a solitaire a lot to pass time. Frode also started talking to the cards and creating personalities for each in his head. Due to the overuse the pictures on the cards discolored and disappeared but Frode continued to talk to them in his mind. Frode thinks that he is going insane when one day three diamonds walk towards him and greeted him as if they were friends. Since there was no way off the island Frode decides to join the cards to enjoy their company. Frode is shocked when he sees that a new sailor can see and interact with the card people too. Frode realizes that it was not a delusion but it seems that he had dreamt them into existence. Philosophy Philosophy factually means love and wisdom. Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems connected with existence, knowledge, values, reasons, language and mind. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of tackling such problems by its critical generally logical approach and the reliance on rational argument. . Psychology is referred as the science study of mind and behavior. The goal of psychology is to understand behavior and mental processes by researching and establishing specific cases and their principles. In psychology various concepts such as perception, attention, emotion and cognition. The solitaire mystery book consists of philosophical themes. The book discusses several philosophical themes. Some are obvious and are covered in the general plot. However, there are little scraps here and there. Hans’ father is a chain smoker although he dislikes smoking in his car. Along the way to Europe, they have to stop for cigarette breaks at which time the father gets the opportunity to philosophically talk to his son. It was through the late eighties that Jostein Gaarder, a young Norwegian philosophy teacher, felt a deep sense of unrest on noticing a swelling unconcern towards abstract questions of philosophy among his teenage students. As an educator who cared, devising an effective antidote was the only imperative for Gaarder. He had to script a therapeutic remedy for the epidemic of inquisitiveness towards seemingly obscure but indispensable questions. Nature of existence The nature of existence is one theme which runs throughout the book especially the miraculous nature of life itself. The book explores the big question of whether it is possible to imagine something into existence. This theme is also found in other historical backgrounds like Australian aboriginal myth. Considering this, the elders claim that the world was dreamt into existence. Destiny Destiny is referred to as a predetermined course of events. Destiny may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Destiny is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed nature of order. The theme destiny gives ideas that some things are going to happen despite one’s fate. Fate is a concept that has many supporters who believe that some things have been planned long time ago from the dawn of time. Destiny is a series of events that is unchangeable and inevitable. For example, the picture cards in the card deck are pretty much the same but each card has its own touch of individuality. All the kings have swords in their hands apart from the King of Diamonds. The king holds an axe in his hand. All the kings have coiled smooth hair as the Red Kings normally have their hair coiled and the Black Kings usually have their hair curled. Jack of Clubs and Diamonds have a pleasant smile on their faces. The Jack of Hearts if compared to King and Queen of Hearts normally looks in a totally dissimilar direction. In the Diamonds, the King looks in a different direction than the Queen and Jack. In Spades it is the King while in Clubs it is the Queen who looks in a distinct direction than the others. Nature of Human Nature of human is described as a broad idea or message conveyed by at work. Such message is usually about life or society. Human nature is described as the key theme of crisis in many large financial institutions. Humanity is the concept where a set of inherent distinguishing characteristics like thinking, feeling and acting all human beings tend to have. Questions of what ultimately causes these distinguishing characteristics in humans, how this causation works and human nature are among the oldest and most vital questions in western philosophy (Pozza, 102). These questions have chiefly important implications in ethics, politics and theology since human nature is seen as providing standards that humans can use when judging how best to live either as individuals and members of a community. The complex implications of such arguments are also themes dealt with in art (Dessaix, 76). Given that human behavior is diverse, it becomes difficult to find absolutely invariant individual behaviors that may interest the philosophers. A lesser standard in the search for evidence pertaining to "humanity" is used by scientists that study behavior. Biologists search for evidence of genetic disposition to behavioral patterns. Human behavior is influenced by the environment and the genetically predisposed behavioral traits are not expected to be beyond control. A sort of human behavior which has a strong genetic circumstances can be considered to be part of humanity. Similarly, human nature is not seen as something that may force persons to behave in a certain manner. However, there is something that makes individuals more apt to act in a certain way as opposed to another. Gaarder favors children's perception and voices as his writing is evident that he feels children appreciate the world much better than adults. Through seeing the world through a child's eyes, one is able to learn far more than the use of own perceptions (Norwegian, 170). Chapters of the novel are named as the cards in a card pack. Hans' father collects jokers and thinks he is one too. However, the card imagery runs through the text. Gaarder uses the cards to state on the way in which reality is structured. It is an interesting concept which works very well. Such parallels that gaarder is able to draw between cards and time are quite mesmerizing. Crossing of worlds As the plot continues to progresses, the reader sees that there are two separate stories of Hans Thomas's expedition as well as the events in the sticky bun book begin to overlap. The cards in the sticky bun book take part in game and each sentence has a meaning. Frode tries to interpret its strange meaning. However, the cards' predictions as illustrated in the tiny book begin to reveal details about the protagonist’s own plight in finding his mother. It occurs to Hans Thomas that his mother does bear a striking resemblance in her personality to the Ace of Hearts where she 'loses herself' or disappear for long periods (Young, 114). In addition, throughout Hans Thomas's voyage, he has seen the identical odd little bearded man following him. For example, the man who gave him the magnifying glass that proved so useful to read the tiny sticky bun book. However, each time Hans Thomas approached the tiny man, he seemed to rush and vanish. The baffling issue for Hans Thomas is that he halted for the cake merely by chance choosing to eat a sticky bun luckily. Ultimately, it turns out that the man who gave Hans Thomas the sticky bun book was his estranged grandfather who was the baker, writer of the tiny sticky bun book. On top of that, the grandson was the shipwrecked sailor who met Frode and his cards on the supernatural island. The grandfather works this out at the simultaneously as Hans Thomas deduces too. Rather, this understanding was not realized earlier as the grandfather passed away before Hans Thomas returned to his small alpine village after reuniting with his mother in Athens. In the sticky bun book, one discovers that just as the cards were played in the game, there were predictions to exactly what would happen between Thomas and his family. As such, the magic island begins to vanish by itself, 50-two years prior to the day it had sprung into existence. The deprived card-people were eaten up inside the island as it folds itself disappearing into nothingness. The young sailor known as Hans does escape on a rowing boat that he had brought. Only one of the supposed 'cards' managed to escape the island. Similar to Hans Thomas as he realizes that it is the Joker that gave him the magnifying glass following him about always. As soon as Hans Thomas reads the final sentence of the sticky bun book, closing and looking up, he sees the Joker slide away into the crowd vanishing. Religion Religion is a branch of philosophy apprehensive with questions regarding religion, including the nature and existence of God, assessment of religious experience, analysis of religious language and texts as well as the relationship of religion and science. It is a prehistoric discipline found in the earlier scripts about philosophy (Burt, 115). It relates to numerous other branches of philosophy and generally including Metaphysics, reason and History. Philosophy of religion is frequently discussed outside of academia throughout popular books and debates. They deal mostly with the existence of God and crisis of evil. The philosophy of religion differs from religious philosophy as it seeks to discuss questions regarding the nature of religion as a whole unit rather than examining the problems brought forth by a specific belief system. It is designed such that it can be carried out objectively by those who identify as believers or non-believers. The Christian concept that the creator lives within his creations is explored. However, the seemingly perfect creation is soon ruined by the Joker during the "Joker Game" series, which is arguably a planned parallel happening at the Garden of Eden. Works Cited Young Y: Kliatt young adult paperback book guide, Volume 30. Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide,. 28 Aug 2009. Michigan: US Norwegian N: Harry Hole, Novels by Jostein Gaarder, Novels by Karin Fossum, Kristin Lavransdatter, the Solitaire Mystery. General Books LLC, 2010. Dessaix R. Speaking their minds: intellectuals and the public culture in Australia. ABC Books, 1998. 16 Jul 2009. Michigan: US Burt C.Calculators: readings from the Arithmetic teacher and the Mathematics teacher. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 30 Jul 2009. Virginia: US Pozza D. Bedrock and paradox: the literary landscape of Edward Abbey. Peter Lang, 2006 Quebec:Canada. Read More